Olympic Disaster: A Tribute to Socialism

by Bernie Reeves –
God could not save the Queen. And Mitt Romney was right: the Brits were not prepared to host the 2012 Olympiad.

Rather than celebrate Great Britain’s extraordinary contribution to the world in the Opening Ceremony of the London games, director Danny Boyle produced an extravaganza of mediocrity, purposefully avoiding the real story of England’s incontrovertible success as, by most measures, the greatest world culture since Rome.

For anyone who was fortunate enough to miss the proceedings, do not go back and watch it on your DVR: Unless you are masochistic and derive pleasure from Morris dancers and toiling peasants beating drums announcing the advent of the Industrial Revolution. At this point the audience was expecting exploitation of the workers and the rise of the il-tempered labor movement that eventually brought the UK to its knees – until Margaret Thatcher rescued the once muscular British economy from slipping into Third World oblivion.

But none of that for Danny Boyle. The rise of industry in his vision only brought war, requiring a mandatory moment of silence – a real buzz killer in opening ceremony circles. A tribute to the woman’s suffrage movement failed to rekindle the crowd, nor did the carnival that appeared for no apparent reason. And what was Kenneth Branagh doing walking around the proceedings in a top hat and mutton chop whiskers?

The spectacle was infantile. Yet it descended even further as the staging switched to recognition of Britain’s two greatest contributions to the world: children’s literature and the National Health Service. As Jack Paar would say, I kid you not. It’s too embarrassing to provide details, but suffice it to say that the floor was covered with dozens of hospital beds as sick children jumped up and down to dramatize the age-hold problem, as the stunned announcers intoned, of kids refusing to go to sleep.

Peter Pan was the theme but the effect was numbingly banal and annoying as a huge chorus of deaf children sang a song no one recognized. But there was relief, including a filmed sequence featuring James Bond (Daniel Craig) arriving at Buckingham Palace to pick up the Queen for a helicopter ride to Olympic Stadium where they both sky-dived into the ceremonies. Yes indeed. But even that bit was a failure. And the real Queen never smiled during the tedious, mortifying auto- da- fe of her realm by a secular Inquisition delivered by politically correct imbeciles.

A director with talent and a firm understanding of his own nation would have emphasized Britain’s connection to the sea, and at least made reference to the Empire. Or recognize Chaucer and Shakespeare; Byron and Shelley; Joyce and Lawrence. The worst oversight was not to signify Britain’s brave stand alone against Nazi-occupied Europe for more than a year before the US entered World War 11. Britons remained on rations until 1961, and repaid their entire war debt. And the Queen still heads the 56 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, composed of former dominions and possessions.

In the modern era, Britain beat the odds and defeated the Argentines in the 1982 Falklands War. UK has supplied troops and support for every military action by the US since 1945, including playing a crucial role in the Cold War against Soviet brutality and treachery that makes Hitler a rank amateur. And where in the ceremony were the marching bands, horsemen and bagpipes?

Director Boyle is a prole. He exploited the opportunity to present the greatness of his nation’s heritage with a badly done tribute to socialism, a movement that has lost credibility across the globe – including the UK.

Britain’s Millennium Dome was the beginning of the end of the culture most connected to America. Despite being warned that we are no longer British, or even European anymore, some of us remember that we are an extension of Great Britain. Parliamentary government, the common law, literature, language and the “invisible customs” of our life as Americans are derived from our connection to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The dismal spectacle in London during the opening ceremony is instructive: As the Brits let go of their of heritage, we can expect ours is next to go.

The announcer informed the huge TV audience that Boyle arranged for the smell of sulfur to permeate the stadium during the industrial sequence. But even that could not overcome the odor of failure that dominated the proceedings.

10 thoughts on “Olympic Disaster: A Tribute to Socialism”

A celebration of free healthcare, the trade union struggle, the battle for women’s rights and a fleeting lesbian kiss: the Olympics opening ceremony Friday did not shy away from weighty social issues.

Unsurprisingly, the show devised by Oscar-winning British director Danny Boyle drew accusations from the British political right that it had strayed into “leftie” issues.

Aidan Burley, a lawmaker from Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservative party, tweeted: “The most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen — more than Beijing, the capital of a communist state! Welfare tribute next?”

He followed that with: “Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap.”

Several people tweeted their support for his comments.

Alastair Campbell, former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s communications chief, retorted on Twitter: “Brilliant that we got a socialist to do the opening ceremony.”

Just to point out a couple of small errors. Clearly you didn’t recognise that Branagh was playing perhaps the world’s greatest ever civil engineer IK Brunel and your complaint that Shakespeare was ignored falls a bit flat as his were the very first words uttered. Joyce of course was born in Ireland – which is a different country. The moment of silence was a tribute to those killed in war (perhaps remembering them is, indeed, a ‘buzz-kill’). Rationing did not finish in 1961 but in 1954 (though it was temporarily reintroduced during Suez). I’m not sure which war debt you’re talking about (there were two) but neither was paid off in 1961. There are 54, not 56 Commonwealth nations. The song that was sung by the deaf choir and which ‘nobody recognised” was actually the National Anthem. It was, of course, the smell of cordite in the arena (I’m assuming you’re merely repeating the TV commentator’s mistake?) – different sulphuric compounds smell different so there isn’t one “smell of sulphur”. The Millennium Dome is privately operated and houses the O2 Arena, one of London’s top music venues. The ‘Ferris wheel’ (the London Eye) – similarly managed privately – is the most popular paid-for tourist attraction in the UK. Finally, the US has embarked on dozens of military operations since WW2 but the UK has not joined all of them by any means. Most famously, despite his ardent wish to foster the special relationship, Harold Wilson did not send troops to Vietnam. And clearly the UK wasn’t involved when the USA launched a surprise invasion of Grenada, which was (and still is) a member of the Commonwealth, causing a famous falling out between Thatcher and Reagan. I’d argue that even in three hours it would be difficult to show the full panoply of Britain’s achievements but that glorifying our military past could wait for a moment other than when we are welcoming guests from throughout the world (some of whom are former enemies). Or should we have marked the Battle of Bladensburg and the burning of Washington? It’s a shame that American TV chose to cut away from the tribute to the victims of 7/7, but I’m sure Americans would be as forgiving of a British TV station snubbing 911. Also a few typos need correcting. Apart from that…

Also celebrated were Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, and Rowan Atkinson, the embodiment of British comedy. If Mr Reeves were the director of the ceremony, it would have been equally political, only from the opposite side of centre (as the British would spell this word). Maybe the British Government should have commissioned Mr Reeves and Mr Boyle to work together on the project. A fight in the arena is a very appropriate way of opening the Olympic Games!

As a Londoner, an Orthodox Christian, an Orthodox theologian, I am appalled that an ostensibly Orthodox website would publish such a factually incorrect diatribe and misrepresentation of the event. While entitled to political and artistic viewpoints about the event as are we all- at least get your facts straight. That’s the first rule of journalism – is it not?
I understand how how people wanted to see pomp and ceremony and how Britain made an Empire, but that probably wouldn’t go down too well in most of the rest of the world. Especially as that Empire was built initially on the slave trade and the suppression of others. I know my Cypriot forebears did not have a particularly good experience of the Empire – nor did much of the rest of the world. We didn’t want to alienate them. (Point of note for culturally uniformed author- Cyprus is a small little Mediterranean island whose natives are Orthodox Christians and have been since the time of the Apostles).
One of the good things about the Empire was the spread of world sport. This was highlighted in the event by showcasing Cricket and Rugby – international games played on 5 continents the notable exception being the USA. There are other good things about the Empire like our current commonwealth – but we were hosting 204 countries from around the world not just the 54 that make up the Commonwealth and for which we have the amazing Commonwealth games every four years.
John (above) is absolutely correct in pointing out the factual inaccuracies of the article . I was so shocked when I got to the bit that said “a huge chorus of deaf children sang a song no one recognized” that was OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM!!! Perhaps the author is a little hard of hearing himself. The choir comes from a London school with specialist deaf teaching and my cousin (also Orthodox) is a teacher there and very proud if the amazing work they do integrating the deaf into society. The fact that the author denigrates them and the article is published on this website says more about you than it does about London.
On a further point, it is disgraceful to hear that NBC cut out the memorial to 7/7 bombing victims. That was wholly disrespectful especially from the country that could probably sympathise with us the most given the 9/11 experience. The day after 9/11 the Queen broke all protocol and at the Changing of the Guard as the Star Spangled Banner was played the very next day (10/11). At least we know what your national anthem is. The BBC has devoted hours of broadcast to the 9/11 memorials yet NBC couldn’t bear a 5 min segment memorial for the London bombings (poigniant to us because it happened the day after London was awarded the games). One wonders what else NBC cut out and what version of the ceremony you got anyway.
My personal opinion – it was very much a populist view of Britain, very British with things that the people of these islands hold dear and cherish, it had touches of humour and was enjoyable. It was somewhat parochial and turned down the pomp celebrating popular culture. It wasn’t the best opening ceremony ever – a hard act to follow after Athens and Beijing – but it wasn’t the nightmare the author describes.
If I was that culturally ignorant that I could not recognise the nuances in the event I would be embarrassed to write about it. This was no hindrance for the author, however. He was not held back by not understanding the ceremony, not recognising the British National Anthem (God Save the Queen is rather obvious), not recognising the words of Shakespeare (from the Tempest), failing to see the reference to two World Wars, not recognising that our Queen is 86 years old, had her busiest year ever and is not known for smiling (British stiff-upper lip), and failing to recognise that we had to produce an event that would not upset former enemies – says a lot more about the author’s lack of education than anything about Danny Boyle’s personal vision.

I was a child when the Nazi’s came to power. When the smoke stacks arose on the Olympic Stadium, I relived the horrors of the Nazi regime. All this smacked of both Nazism and Communism.
I am an avid fan of English medieval history, nothing at all was mentioned about a great nation.
Shame, shame, shame!!!!!!!!